Point clouds for use in building information models (BIM)

Abstract

The use of point clouds in extracting data for building information modelling (BIM) has become common recently. Managers of older buildings are working to centralise information. Documentation about mechanical installations, plumbing, electricity, and previous interventions is often stored on scattered media, frequently still on paper. In the transformation of the material world into the digital world, the point cloud is the starting point, containing information about the material world obtained by various means such as photogrammetry, terrestrial or aerial laser scanning. Manual BIM modelling for management, maintenance and future use is a time-consuming and error-prone process. We would like to automate this process and avoid these errors. Recently, there have been developed an increasing number of stand-alone programmes and add-ons that provide automated, fast, and more accurate modelling based on point cloud data. In this paper we present an investigation into the possibilities for automating the creation of BIM models from point cloud data. The result is a semi-automated process for modelling individual BIM elements, which we have tested on specific examples of modelling individual elements (walls, pipes, and columns). We note that despite the automation of the process, a high level of user interaction is still required to produce good quality models.